{"id":7236,"date":"2025-11-07T18:31:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T18:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/11\/07\/trump-is-being-challenged-on-affordability-by-a-surprising-source-fox-news-cnn\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T18:31:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T18:31:19","slug":"trump-is-being-challenged-on-affordability-by-a-surprising-source-fox-news-cnn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/11\/07\/trump-is-being-challenged-on-affordability-by-a-surprising-source-fox-news-cnn\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump is being challenged on affordability by a surprising source \u2014 Fox News – CNN"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A version of this article first appeared in the \u201cReliable Sources\u201d newsletter. You can <\/em><\/strong>sign up for free here<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n

President Trump said Thursday that \u201cI don\u2019t want to hear about the affordability.\u201d The comment \u2014 which instantly became prime-time cable fodder \u2014 came in the middle of a meandering and misleading response to a question from Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich. <\/p>\n

\u201cGroceries are way down. Everything is way down,\u201d Trump falsely claimed. \u201cAnd the press doesn\u2019t report it. The press reports whatever the con people say. You know, I call the Democrats con men and women. They make up numbers.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy enough for Trump to blame the press when he is in a Q&A session with reporters. It\u2019s harder when he\u2019s hearing from a voter who is struggling. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s why this was an especially savvy move by Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Baier used his access to Trump, on the sidelines of a business forum in Miami, to read a message from Regina Foley, a retiree in Greensboro, North Carolina. Foley told Baier that she was a three-time Trump voter who was worried about the GOP losing control of Congress next year. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomething has to be done fast,\u201d Foley wrote to Baier. \u201cI don\u2019t see the best economy right now. Wall Street numbers do not reflect my Main Street money. Please do something, President Trump.\u201d <\/p>\n

Her concern about the cost of living was tellingly framed as a political problem, not an economic or moral one. However, it hit right at the theme of the off-year elections earlier this week. As Axios<\/a> put it Friday morning, \u201cThe affordability crisis, once Biden\u2019s, is now Trump\u2019s.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s non-answer to Foley\u2019s concern (he said prices are \u201cdown already,\u201d and the \u201cbiggest problem is Republicans don\u2019t talk about it\u201d) made waves on social media. On Baier\u2019s Instagram page<\/a>, commenters said things like \u201cOur groceries are not down\u201d and \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come shopping?\u201d <\/p>\n

The exchange underscored that the press is most effective when it is really, directly channeling the public. <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s ability to talk some people into believing up is down, with the assistance of the right-wing media machine, has been central to his political success. And his \u201caffordability\u201d comments this week suggest that he sees it as a messaging problem. <\/p>\n

The president\u2019s new favorite thing to tout is Walmart\u2019s promotional Thanksgiving meal basket being 25% cheaper than last year. CNN\u2019s Daniel Dale looked into it<\/a> and explained that the basket\u2019s contents are markedly different this year. <\/p>\n

GOP radio host Erick Erickson offered some tough love for his party yesterday. <\/p>\n

\u201cGrocery prices are going up. And now Republicans are perversely doing the same thing Democrats did when they were in office with Joe Biden, saying, \u2018No, actually, don\u2019t believe your eyes at the grocery store, prices are coming down!\u2019\u201d Erickson said on his syndicated radio show. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not helpful to Americans who are feeling higher grocery costs right now, which is actually happening. The Republicans have gotta figure this out.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A version of this article first appeared in the \u201cReliable Sources\u201d newsletter. You can sign up for free here. President Trump said Thursday that \u201cI don\u2019t want to hear about the affordability.\u201d The comment \u2014 which instantly became prime-time cable fodder \u2014 came in the middle of a meandering and misleading response to a question […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}